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Where are my files? I'm used to them being in the Quake 3 directory!

On Windows, all user specific files such as autogenerated configuration, demos, videos, screenshots, and autodownloaded pk3s are now saved in a directory specific to the user who is running ioquake3.

In order to access this directory more easily, you can also type %APPDATA%\Quake3\ in the file explorer and hit enter

On Windows 98 and ME, this is usually a directory named:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Quake3\

On Windows 2000 and XP

C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\Quake3\

On Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Quake3\

I don't like this!

You can revert to the old single-user behavior by creating a shortcut to your ioquake3 executable with the fs_homepath cvar set to the directory where ioquake3 is installed. For example: ioquake3.exe +set fs_homepath "c:\ioquake3"

Updating

Where are my files?

Linux

Installation

Updating

Where are my files?

~/.q3a/

Android/iOS

We don't currently have an official version of ioquake3 for mobile devices, there are many versions of ioquake3 that you will find if you search app stores for Quake 3. We didn't make them, we can't fix them. Please don't pay money for them, ioquake3 is free software.

Something isn't working right!!!!

I’m getting an error that says “User Interface is version 3, expected 6”

I’m getting some Sys_Error thing about a pak0.pk3, wtf?!?

You haven’t installed the pak0.pk3 from the Quake 3: Arena Disc or Steam into your baseq3 folder, you still need to buy Quake 3: Arena to play that game or any mods based on Quake 3.

HD/High Resolutions

Not only do we have instructions for setting a non-standard resolution, but in widescreen modes we will display Quake 3 more properly than id’s last version. You can find out your screen resolution from this link. For an older macbook, I’d use these commands in the console:

/r_mode -1
/r_customheight 800
/r_customwidth 1280

then if I’m in-game I would use /vid_restart to restart ioquake3’s video system with the new display resolution.
If I want the game to be fullscreen you can use the /r_fullscreen 1 command. To set it back to windowed mode you can change the 1 to a 0 /r_fullscreen 0.

Note that the in-game video preferences will not list your new resolution.

Using HTTP/FTP Download Support

Want to download maps and mods faster? If the server you're using supports it, you can!

Just type /cl_allowdownload 1 in the console and hit the enter key.

Changing that number to 0 will disable downloads, here are some other options

cl_allowdownload 1

Enable HTTP/FTP and UDP downloads.

cl_allowdownload 2

Disable HTTP/FTP downloads, but enable UDP downloads.

cl_allowdownload 4

Disable UDP downloads, but enable HTTP/FTP downloads

QuakeLive mouse acceleration

(patch and this text written by TTimo from id)

I've been using an experimental mouse acceleration code for a while, and decided to make it available to everyone. Don't be too worried if you don't understand the explanations below, this is mostly intended for advanced players: To enable it, set cl_mouseAccelStyle 1 (0 is the default/legacy behavior)

New style is controlled with 3 cvars:

sensitivitycl_mouseAccelcl_mouseAccelOffset

The old code (cl_mouseAccelStyle 0) can be difficult to calibrate because if you have a base sensitivity setup, as soon as you set a non zero acceleration your base sensitivity at low speeds will change as well. The other problem with style 0 is that you are stuck on a square (power of two) acceleration curve.

The new code tries to solve both problems:

Once you setup your sensitivity to feel comfortable and accurate enough for low mouse deltas with no acceleration (cl_mouseAccel 0), you can start increasing cl_mouseAccel and tweaking cl_mouseAccelOffset to get the amplification you want for high deltas with little effect on low mouse deltas.

cl_mouseAccel<code> is a power value. Should be >= 1, 2 will be the same power curve as style 0. The higher the value, the faster the amplification grows with the mouse delta.

<code>cl_mouseAccelOffset sets how much base mouse delta will be doubled by acceleration. The closer to zero you bring it, the more acceleration will happen at low speeds. This is also very useful if you are changing to a new mouse with higher dpi, if you go from 500 to 1000 dpi, you can divide your cl_mouseAccelOffset by two to keep the same overall 'feel' (you will likely gain in precision when you do that, but that is not related to mouse acceleration).

Mouse acceleration is tricky to configure, and when you do you'll have to re-learn your aiming. But you will find that it's very much worth it in the long run.

If you try the new acceleration code and start using it, I'd be very interested by your feedback.

SDL Keyboard Differences

ioquake3 clients have different keyboard behavior compared to the original Quake3 clients.

SDL > 1.2.9 does not support disabling dead key recognition. In order to send dead key characters (e.g. ~, ', `, and ^), you must key a Space (or sometimes the same character again) after the character to send it on many international keyboard layouts.

The SDL client supports many more keys than the original Quake3 client. For example the keys: "Windows", "SysReq", "ScrollLock", and "Break". For non-US keyboards, all of the so called "World" keys are now supported as well as F13, F14, F15, and the country-specific mode/meta keys.

On many international layouts the default console toggle keys are also dead keys, meaning that dropping the console potentially results in unintentionally initiating the keying of a dead key. Furthermore SDL 1.2's dead key support is broken by design and Q3 doesn't support non-ASCII text entry, so the chances are you won't get the correct character anyway.

If you use such a keyboard layout, you can set the cvar cl_consoleKeys. This is a space delimited list of key names that will toggle the console. The key names are the usual Q3 names e.g. "~", "`", "c", "BACKSPACE", "PAUSE", "WINDOWS" etc. It's also possible to use ASCII characters, by hexadecimal number. Some example values for cl_consoleKeys:

"~ ` 0x7e 0x60" Toggle on ~ or ` (the default)
"WINDOWS" Toggle on the Windows key
"c" Toggle on the c key
"0x43" Toggle on the C character (Shift-c)
"PAUSE F1 PGUP" Toggle on the Pause, F1 or Page Up keys

Note that when you elect a set of console keys or characters, they cannot then be used for binding, nor will they generate characters when entering text. Also, in addition to the nominated console keys, Shift-ESC is hard coded to always toggle the console.

I can’t bring down the console with the ` or the ~!

Press the Shift and Escape keys at the same time, this will bring down the console on any system.

ioquake3 now uses the select() system call to wait for the rendering of the next frame when com_maxfps was hit. This will improve your CPU load considerably in these cases. However, not all systems may support a granularity for its timing functions that is required to perform this waiting correctly. For instance, ioquake3 tells select() to wait 2 milliseconds, but really it can only wait for a multiple of 5ms, i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20... ms. In this case you can always revert back to the old behavior by setting the cvar com_busyWait to 1.

Using shared libraries instead of qvm

To force ioquake3 to use shared libraries instead of qvms run it with the following parameters: +set sv_pure 0 +set vm_cgame 0 +set vm_game 0 +set vm_ui 0

Why can’t I run Team Arena or the Mission Pack?!?!?!

Did you buy Team Arena? It comes with some modern versions of Quake 3, but most people who just have Quake 3, don’t have Team Arena (which is the same as the mission pack).

To install Team Arena, copy the pak0.pk3 from the missionpack directory on your cd-rom to the missionpack directory under your ioquake3 directory.

How do I enable Voice-Over-IP?

Make sure your network settings are set to broadband.

/s_useOpenAL 1

/snd_restart

/bind q “+voiprecord”

Hook up a microphone, connect to a VoIP-supporting server. (server.ioquake3.org, for example)

Using Demo Data Files

Copy demoq3/pak0.pk3 from the demo installer to your baseq3 directory. The qvm files in this pak0.pk3 will not work, so you have to use the native shared libraries or qvms from this project. To use the new qvms, they must be put into a pk3 file. A pk3 file is just a zip file, so any compression tool that can create such files will work. The shared libraries should already be in the correct place. Use the instructions above to use them.

Please bear in mind that you will not be able to play online using the demo data, nor is it something that we like to spend much time maintaining or supporting.

Will You Remove the CD-Key Check?

No, we will not be removing the CD-key check. The Quake III: Arena game is not free, and you must purchase a CD or buy it from Steam to play it. Don’t let this confuse you, the engine is open source, and is absolutely 100% free. If someone makes a new game based on the source code that does not use the Quake 3: Arena or Team Arena data, they of course don’t need to and should not require a CD key in their game.

Does Punkbuster or other anti-cheat software work with ioquake3?

No. Punkbuster is closed-source software that we cannot implement. There is no good software replacement. Good administrators on your server who can watch out for cheaters, review logs, and review recorded demo files are the only anti-cheat option at this time.